Another Addition To The RUC's Lethal Arsenal
The RUC-PSNI are to begin using Taser electro-shock weapons this week despite the danger they have been proven to pose around the world.
In October last year a distraught Polish immigrant, Robert Dziekanski, was electrocuted to death with the weapon by police in Vancouver airport, Canada despite the fact that his lack of English left him unaware of what the police were initially ordering him to do.
The respected human rights group Amnesty International has claimed that more than 220 people have died in the USA and Canada after being ‘tasered’ since 2001.
Tasers temporarily disable a suspect by delivering a 50,000-volt shock. The electrical pulses from the Taser induce skeletal muscle spasms that immobilise and incapacitate the individual, causing them to fall to the ground. Recent studies have cited the need for more research into potential adverse effects from Taser shocks on people who are agitated or under the influence of drugs, or who are subjected to multiple or prolonged shocks.
Now, one of the most notorious paramilitary police forces in the world has been given access to this piece of weaponry under the pretext that it is a “less lethal option”.
As of Wednesday (January 16), members of the RUC-PSNI’s ‘specialist operations unit’ will begin training with the electro-shock weapons and they will be ready for use on members of the public within four weeks.
The Tasers will then be deployed for general use on members of the public after six months.
Tasers have also been issued to members of An Garda Síochána in the Twenty-Six Counties.
Éirígí spokesperson Daithí Mac An Mháistír pointed to several concerns raised by the issuing of these lethal implements to members of the RUC.
“The RUC-PSNI is synonymous around the world with the abuse of power and the weaponry at its disposal.
“This organisation has murdered six people, including two children and a mother-of-three, with the supposedly ‘less lethal’ plastic bullet. They have also assaulted children, pregnant women and the mentally disabled with the recently issued CS spray.
“Tens of thousands of plastic bullets are still stockpiled in the RUC-PSNI’s arsenal and the CS spray remains on general issue. Now, that arsenal is being added to with the patently lethal Taser weapon. More repressive weaponry being placed in the hands of repression-minded officers can only lead to more human rights abuses.”
Daithí continued, “The process by which the Tasers were issued also highlights the totally ineffective nature of the reforms that have been implemented in relation to British policing in the Six Counties. The Six County Policing Board raised serious concerns about the deployment of electro-shock guns, yet Hugh Orde found himself free to issue them regardless, rendering local accountability completely non-existent.
“As with most of the negative aspects of the RUC-PSNI, the nationalist community will probably feel its effects disproportionately. Éirígí are appealing for all citizens in the Six Counties to remain vigilant in the time ahead as the state’s thugs in uniform will obviously be keen to try out their new weapons of choice at the first opportunity.”